Particular attention should be given to Eucharistic adoration
The pope’s letter has been delivered.
In almost every family in Ireland, there has been someone – a son or a daughter, an aunt or an uncle – who has given his or her life to the Church. Irish families rightly esteem and cherish their loved ones who have dedicated their lives to Christ…In recent decades, however, the Church in your country has had to confront new and serious challenges to the faith arising from the rapid transformation and secularization of Irish society. Fast-paced social change has occurred, often adversely affecting people’s traditional adherence to Catholic teaching and values. All too often, the sacramental and devotional practices that sustain faith and enable it to grow, such as frequent confession, daily prayer and annual retreats, were neglected. Significant too was the tendency during this period, also on the part of priests and religious, to adopt ways of thinking and assessing secular realities without sufficient reference to the Gospel.
Oh. It was secularism what did it. Who knew?
At the conclusion of my meeting with the Irish bishops, I asked that Lent this year be set aside as a time to pray for an outpouring of God’s mercy and the Holy Spirit’s gifts of holiness and strength upon the Church in your country…Particular attention should also be given to Eucharistic adoration, and in every diocese there should be churches or chapels specifically devoted to this purpose. I ask parishes, seminaries, religious houses and monasteries to organize periods of Eucharistic adoration, so that all have an opportunity to take part. Through intense prayer before the real presence of the Lord, you can make reparation for the sins of abuse that have done so much harm…
No you can’t. No you can’t. ‘Intense prayer’ is beside the point. ‘The Lord’ is not there. The presence is not real. Magic, and ceremonies, and fiddling about with people who aren’t there, are not any kind of way to make reparations to real people who have suffered real harm. Forget the sodding Eucharistic adoration, and pay attention to this here, the real world, where you and your colleagues fucked up thousands of children. Skip the cant.
“I now wish to propose to you some concrete initiatives to address the situation.”
Great!
What will it be?
Opening up the Vatican archives to allow the police authorities to prosecute the abusers?
No?
OK……
Well its probably going to be the sacking of all the bishops who failed to alert the authorities of suspected cases of child rape that were brought to their attention?
No?
OK…
A promise, perchance, that all future cases of child abuse will be immediately reported to the police?
No?
OK..
How about asking the Irish to say lots of prayers and go to church to worship a cracker?
Yes!
That’s the one!
I’m so glad Pope Benny has turned up to solve the problem.
And if it doesn’t work, the prayer wasn’t intense enough and you’re a bad person.
At most, the Pope urges perpetrator priests to turn themselves in to the civil authorities (after prayer and penance, of course). Nary a mention of the idea that the church hierarchy could disclose to the civil prosecutors and police the information that the church has collected and concealed for decades.
I find it curious, but not completely surprising, that the Pope’s letter still implies the moral superiority and separateness of canon law and ecclesiastical procedure, as here:
[to the bishops] “It cannot be denied that some of you and your predecessors failed, at times grievously, to apply the long-established norms of canon law to the crime of child abuse.”
and here:
“Besides fully implementing the norms of canon law in addressing cases of child abuse, continue to cooperate with the civil authorities in their area of competence.”
What does the Pope mean by the “area of competence” of the civil authorities? And wasn’t it too much attentiveness to “the norms of canon law,” “papal secrecy,” etc. that made the current mess as bad and as long-standing as it is?
What bollocks.
On a slightly more serious note I have now read the entire 18 page document and was amazed how much emphasis was placed on upholding canon law. The idea that this situation arose through the inadequate application of canon law is ludicrous. It was the very fact that the secular laws were deemed secondary to canon law that obscured these cases from appropriate justice in the first place and led to many more children being abused.
The very least the Pope should have done was acknowledge that suspected child abuse must be dealt with by the police and NOT solely by the church but he pointedly failed to do that.
“Certainly, among the contributing factors we can include: …insufficient human, moral, intellectual and spiritual formation in seminaries and novitiates; a tendency in society to favour the clergy and other authority figures; and a misplaced concern for the reputation of the Church and the avoidance of scandal, resulting in failure to apply existing canonical penalties…”
But is the Catholic Church itself which is constantly banging people over the head about its authority on moral matters. And the “misplaced concern” was, to all appearances, endemic, widespread and promulgated from the upper echelons of the church itself.
And there is this: “It is true, as many in your country have pointed out, that the problem of child abuse is peculiar neither to Ireland nor to the Church.”
No, but a more honest appraisel would acknowledge while the abuse is not “peculiar to Ireland” the scale of the sexual abuse, and the magnitude of the cover up, does seem to be peculiar to the Catholic Church where-ever it has operated.
And it might be worth considering the extent to which the church’s bizarre views on sexuality (among other things) have contributed to the entire situation. But a bit more work on “human, moral, intellectual and spiritual formation” will fix that: I don’t think.
I wonder if, by the time the Pope arrives in the UK, whoever is prime minister will actually want to be seen in public with him? Indeed, will his trip go ahead? You can be your biretta there’ll be big demonstrations if it does, and the slogans on the banners and placards will not pull punches.
Catholics are obliged to accept the notion that in matters of faith and morals the Pope makes infallible decisions. Literally, God stands behind him supervising the inside of his head as he thinks about such questions, and makes sure that he does not fall into Error. (On other matters, such as natural science, he can be off the planet, and God will not give a damn.)
Critics of the Pope’s letter had thus better tread lightly. It is about nothing if not about (clerical) morals. Therefore God produced it, using Ratzinger as His word processor.
Reading between the lines of the message co-authored by God and Ratzinger, the faithful should realise that it is only through ‘intense prayer’ that they will come to realise that the whole scandal of clerical abuse and innocents’ suffering was all somehow their fault. And if one hour of prayer and penitence is not enough to convince them of that, then they should try two, or ten, or a week of it.
I tried reading the whole thing, but couldn’t get through it. It’s just a load of pomp. He spends way too much time repeating how great the Catholic Church is to be convincing.
Some bits that ticked me off especially from the bits you quoted:
Yeah, right. And how does that explain all the people who spoke up that were abused much longer than a few decades ago? Was that due to the recent secularization too?
I think the real result of this secularization is that now these people finally dare to speak up about their experiences. I see that as a big positive effect of the secularization. But I suppose from the Catholic Church’s point of view, it’s a major challenge.
Does he mean “you, the Catholics of Ireland”? Why do they have to make reparation?
From the “Pope had a bad Week” article: “At the start of the 16th century the Vatican was little better than a shit-hole”.
Reminded me of a history of the papacy in “The Late Mr. Shakespeare” by Robert Nye.
A more villainous, murderous, depraved group of sociopaths you will never meet.
Now this was a work of fiction so I assumed some artistic license but if for no other reason than space limitations, Nye has not come close to doing the sordid reality of the papacy justice. And the book is about Shakespeare, the papacy bit was just a diversion.
According to Eamon Duffy, “the Renaissance papacy invokes images of a Hollywood spectacular, all decadence and drag. Contemporaries viewed Renaissance Rome as we now view Nixon’s Washington, a city of expense-account whores and political graft, where everything and everyone had a price, where nothing and nobody could be trusted. The popes themselves seemed to set the tone.” For example, Leo X was said to have remarked: “Let us enjoy the papacy, since God has given it to us.” Several of these popes took mistresses and fathered children and engaged in intrigue or even murder. Alexander VI had four acknowledged children: Cesare Borgia, Lucrezia Borgia, Gioffre Borgia, and Giovanni Borgia.
Me thinks Benedict is just preserving a 2000 year tradition.
Shorter Pope:
‘Unsatisfied with the way the Church has been acting? Solution: be more involved with the Church!’
Sell the Vatican.
“Intense Prayer” huh?
R. A. Heinlein had something to say about that:
“If you pray hard enough, you can make water flow uphill….
How hard do you have to pray?
Hard enough to make water flow uphill, of course!”
IIRC from the “sayings of Lazarus Long”.
Even Shorter Pope: more cowbell.
I like the idea of selling the Vatican. Berlusconi for Pope!
Actually, no, because the archives must be fascinating.
In the Pope’s letter, he talks about an Apostolic Visitation to Irish dioceses. Does that mean he will go there himself? Or maybe St Peter will appear in the sky.
“I wonder if, by the time the Pope arrives in the UK, whoever is prime minister will actually want to be seen in public with him? Indeed, will his trip go ahead?”
valdemar:
Cholls & Cammie, as we speak, are being entertained by the pope in the Vatican. The red carpet is already being cleaned in time for the forthcoming British visit.
“Real progress has been made, yet much more remains to be done.”
Sounds a lot like “A Lot Done, More to Do” slogan emloyed by the Fianna Fail party in the last election. The party finally ruled the day, just like the same bishops will at the end of Easter.
The church expects there will be some kind of resolution with the coming of Christ. The church and its princes and brides, you see, are inhabiting a different planet.
Thank you very much OB, for bringing to the blogosphere the whole child abuse debacle at the hands of the religious. I act as proxy for all those who cannot express themselves in writing. Their world would be a much poorer one without your empathetic intervention and that of kindred spirits.
Really, C and C are visiting the Vatican right now? Godalmighty they chose a terrible weekend for it, didn’t they!
That would be sad if it weren’t so damn funny.
Sorry, valdemar & OB, I am living in a time-warp. The pope’s visit happened nearly a year ago.
Blimey, I read somewhere that Protocol demands that a woman received by him formally must still wear a token covering over her head and face. Sounds very Islamic indeed
A group of parishioners walked out of mass at (parish of my baptism) the Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, after a summary of the pope’s letter was read out to the congregation present there. Pity I couldn’t walk out when my head was being placed over the water-font all those yonks ago.
Marie-Therese has been giving them what-for on Damian Thompson’s blog at the Telegraph. Lots of die-hard Catholics there, telling her to get on with her life or offering her prayers. Big help.